The German space rocket explodes for a few seconds in the test flight – DW – 03/30/2025

An orbital rocket launched from a Norwegian space, the first launch of the genre from European soil, crashed a few seconds after takeoff on Sunday.

The German start-up that built the rocket, Isar Aerospace, whose headquarters are in Ottobrunn, southeast of Munich, has always praised the flight of success.

He said that the test flight had made the company the first commercial space company “to launch an orbital rocket from continental Europe”.

The Spectrum rocket crashed into the sea about thirty seconds after its first test, but the company insisted that the goal of the first flight was to collect as much data as possible.

An orbital launch vehicle is a vehicle powered by rockets, used to deliver a payload, such as satellites, of our planet on terrestrial orbit on other planets.

1st attempt to launch an orbital rocket from the Norwegian Space Center

The takeoff took place at 12:30 p.m. (1030 GMT / UTC) from the Norway’s Andoya Spaceport, after which Isar Aerospace said that the launch vehicle “had managed to eliminate the launch pad”.

The rocket “ended at T + 30 seconds and fell directly into the sea in a controlled manner,” said the company.

“Our first test flight met all of our expectations, making great success,” said Daniel Metzler, CEO and co-founder of Isar Aerospace in an internship published on the company’s website.

“We have shown that we can not only design and build, but also launch rockets,” said Metzler, adding that the foundation had been filed “to meet the growing global demand for flexible satellite launch services”.

The spectrum launching vehicle measures 28 meters long and has a diameter of 2 meters and is capable of transporting a payload between 700 and 1,000 kilograms in space, depending on the orbit.

Isar Aerospace was founded in 2018 and is a possible European response from Musk’s Spacex and Jeff Bezos.

European space quest

Europe has a long way to go for travel in space, lagging behind the United States, China and India.

The German news agency DPA cited the director general of the German Aerospace Industries Association Marie-Christine von Hahn, saying that the launch was a revolutionary stage for German space trips.

“This very complex rocket test made in Germany has given a huge amount of data that will allow us to progress,” she said.

Von Hahn called for more financial support for the European space industry in order to protect competitiveness and independence and underlined the need for alternatives to the constellation of the Starlink satellite of Elon Musk.

Published by: Roshni Majumdar